Top 5 Rostov-on-Don Attractions

The embankment of the Don River is one of the most popular strolling places in Rostov-on-Don. It was named after Fyodor Ushakov, a glorious Russian admiral who didn’t lose a single ship in any battle while he was in command. The embankment is decorated with flowerbeds, various railings and monuments. The most famous sculptures are, ‘Cheeky boy’ and ‘Old man Schukar’, the characters of the books by Mikhail Sholokhov, as well as ‘Father Don’ and ‘Bathing of a Horse’.

The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the main church of the Rostov Diocese. It is a small copy of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. It was built in 1860s by Konstantin Ton, the author of the cathedral in the capital and founder of the ‘Russian-Byzantine’ architectural style popular in the mid 19th century. In 1937, the cathedral was made into as a zoo and a warehouse, but five years later, during the war, the religious services in the cathedral were resumed and it was renovated. In 1999, its bell-tower was refurbished as well. Today, just like in the old times, the building is overlooking the Cathedral Square.

Bolshaya Sadovaya is one of the oldest and most beautiful streets of the city. Until mid 19th century, it was considered to be beyond the city border and it was here that rubbish from all around Rostov-on-Don was brought. However, in the second half of the century, the city expanded, and its look began to change. Bolshaya Sadovaya became home to well-off merchants. Many buildings were erected here in a variety of architectural styles: classicism, Empire, baroque and modernist. The locals call the part of the street with the surviving historical houses, ‘the Rostov Broadway’.

Bolshaya Sadovaya Street has many administrative buildings, as well as historical and cultural sightseeing attractions of the city: Margarita Chernova’s house, the Yablokovs’ commercial house, the main building of the Southern Federal University, etc.

The Rostov Regional Museum of Fine Arts is situated in two buildings. The first, an old exquisite manor on the Pushkinskaya Street, is home to a collection of Russian art. Its exposition includes both the works of Don painters and the originals of world-famous paintings by Karl Bryullov, Ivan Aivazovsky, Ilya Repin and other Russian painters. The museum also boasts a big exhibition of national art of the 20th century.

The second building of the museum is situated in the Children’s Art Gallery on Chekhova Avenue. It exhibits paintings of French, Italian, German, Dutch and Flemish art schools, as well as Japanese and Chinese art.

The Space Museum exhibits space suits and personal belongings of cosmonauts, navigation devices and mock-up models of communication satellites, miniatures of spacecraft and archive documents. One of its star exhibits is Soyuz TMA-10 — a space descend module of the fifteenth main expedition to the ISS. It was donated to the museum by Roscosmos. This module was transformed into a training simulator — it replicates the processes of spacecraft maneuvering in space.